A Strategic Planning Self-Assessment for Physician Medical Practices

Strategic Planning

Following is an example of my strategic planning self-assessment. The purpose of these self-assessments is to give you a concise checklist of best practices in a physician medical practice (and other healthcare practices for that matter). This checklist follows the Pareto Principle of focusing on the 20% of business practices that get you 80% of the results. Therefore, I don’t claim that it covers EVERYTHING. But it does cover a good percentage of the most important things.

Strategic Planning Checklist

• We do a strategic planning process at least annually to gather input from key stakeholders and data about our practice and marketplace.
• We review our mission and vision for the practice.
• We assess the size and growth of the market for our services.
• We compare our own “penetration” to the size of the market.
• We assess trends in managed care and payments and analyze our contracts.
• We evaluate competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and how we can gain an edge.
• We assess the strengths and weaknesses of our referral network.
• We evaluate the depth and breadth of our overall service offerings.
• We assess the strengths and weaknesses of our marketing.
• We assess our payers, including our payer mix.
• We evaluate our clinical utilization rates and quality or care outcomes.
• We evaluate our internal controls.
• We evaluate our cost structure and financial ratios.
• We review our technology.
• We take a hard look at the patient’s experience, and how to improve it.
• We assess the capabilities of our clinicians and staff and identify any gaps to fill.
• We review physician and staff compensation.
• We assess our risks, compliance, and malpractice insurance.
• We evaluate our relationship with local hospital(s).
• We analyze our financial strength, including capacity for debt, days receivables, trends in aging of receivables, collection ratios, and profitability by services.
• We assess our facility and location, including whether we are located in the optimal zip code/area to serve our desired patient base.
• We do an overall “Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats” or SWOT analysis about our practice.
• We determine which services and programs to expand, which to defend, and which to exit.
• We identify the top issues we need to address, and then identify key priorities to address these issues, achieve our vision, and be more competitive and profitable.
• We set annual performance/financial goals for our practice and develop a plan to achieve those goals.
• We assign specific accountability to achieve these initiatives, and a communication plan to follow up on them.

After reviewing this checklist, where do you think your physician medical practice stands from a strategic planning viewpoint? Time for a strategic planning retreat?

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